Ride-share rules to be focus of Seattle council committee meeting

After nearly six months of allowing app-based ride-sharing services such as Lyft and UberX to go unregulated in Seattle, City Council members will take a vote Thursday on amendments.

The discussion will focus on ironing out proposed regulations on the city's emerging ride-sharing industry during a two-year pilot period. The vote will include the following issues:

– Deciding whether the council should cap the number of drivers in each startup company or if a cap should be placed on the number of drivers operating on a company's dispatch system at any given time.

– Refining material for a required driver safety course, which all ride-share, taxicab and for-hire drivers — current and future — would have to complete in order to work.

– Resolving the issue of taxicab "deadheading," or being barred from picking up passengers outside of the county. Council members will also vote on the number of taxicab licenses to be released in a lottery.

However, the Thursday meeting will not be the end of the debate.

Moving forward, City Councilmember Mike O'Brien said he and other councilmembers still need more information from the ride-share services, which have been unwilling to provide company information such as the number of drivers on their systems.

As a result, O'Brien said the council is “operating in the blind" in creating new regulations. "The regulations that we pick Thursday will almost certainly be different than what we do at end of pilot," he said.

The committee's decision will likely be brought to the full council for a vote on March 10 at 2 p.m., but the vote could be postponed if further deliberation is needed.